Rand Paul: Let’s face it, the House GOP’s new debt-ceiling plan is a retreat

posted at 5:11 pm on January 22, 2013 by Allahpundit

He’s almost all alone among prominent Republicans in opposing the plan for a short-term hike, but I’m sure that’s just how he likes it. He’s building a brand for 2016 and the core of it is being the most uncompromising fiscal conservative in the field. No one’s going to get to his right on that, although Rubio’s going to stay as close as he can.

In remarks to the Charleston Meeting, a gathering of conservative leaders in the first-in-the-South presidential primary state, Paul rebuked the House for its plans to delay the debt limit fight by a few months. Republicans intend to vote this week on raising the country’s statutory debt limit to delay a spending standoff with the White House by about three months.

“I saw the speaker on TV handing the newly sworn-in president a flag. I am afraid it was the white flag of surrender,” the Kentucky Republican said, according to a GOP source present at the meeting.

Alluding to the House GOP’s gathering last week in Williamsburg, Va., Paul jabbed: “They came out of their retreat and retreated.”

Paul’s plan? Don’t give in on the debt ceiling but do pass a prioritization bill directing Obama and Geithner to pay America’s debt-related expenses first once the ceiling is hit. That would eliminate the risk of default while forcing a massive immediate slashing of other government spending, with legal and political chaos potentially to ensue. If you think the GOP’s well positioned to win a battle of public opinion if/when that happens, then you should be all for it. If you don’t — and remember, this electorate just reelected Barack “What Debt?” Obama — then maybe you shouldn’t be.

Paul Ryan, whose House leadership position leaves him with much less room to be uncompromising, isn’t:

House insiders say Ryan’s efforts are moving several undecided members to support the idea, which was initially met with some skepticism from the right because it doesn’t include spending cuts.

But Ryan’s case, members say, is pretty simple. He wants Republicans to shape the fiscal debate this year, and do it unencumbered by the threat of government default. As he sees it, the more unity on where the party is picking its battles, the better.

According to sources, Ryan explained the benefits of short-term extension at the recent GOP retreat and at a Republican Study Committee luncheon on Tuesday.

The Club for Growth is also all aboard on a short-term debt-ceiling hike aimed at maximizing the party’s leverage even though they adamantly opposed Boehner’s plan for a $1 trillion hike in return for $1.2 trillion in cuts two years ago. So are Raul Labrador, Darrell Issa, and — maybe — Dave Schweikert. (A key sweetener to gain conservative votes, apparently, is a promise from leadership to pass a budget that will balance within 10 years.) Most surprisingly to me, Democrats appear ready to support the short-term hike too. The White House has said Obama will sign it, Reid hinted that he’s okay with it, even Steny Hoyer, while dismissing the bill as a gimmick, wouldn’t rule out voting for it. You would think Democrats might line up against it just to make life difficult (again) for the GOP: With no Dem votes to count on, Boehner would face another white-knuckle vote a la “Plan B” in which a leadership gambit designed to increase the party’s leverage against Obama depends upon conservatives in the caucus not defecting. It looked like Pelosi was thinking that way too early on, but now that Obama’s shrugged at the bill, she probably can’t hold her caucus together in opposing it. Did O decide that the politics of opposing a short-term hike on grounds that it’s not the long-term hike that Democrats demand are simply too dicey? Or is there something else I’m missing?

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If you think the GOP’s well positioned to win a battle of public opinion if/when that happens, then you should be all for it. If you don’t — and remember, this electorate just reelected Barack “What Debt?” Obama — then maybe you shouldn’t be.

These animals(Boehner, Cantor & the rest of the rinos),are defying the Constitution, just like the TRAITOR-in-chief and for the sake of, the TRAITOR Occutarding the White House! Well Republicans, feel that in between your shoulder blades? That’s a rino knife in your back. Get used to it. eSTABrepub/rino TREASON & Collusion, requires BETRAYAL and Back Stabbing! Forever the legacy of the GOP!

I can’t say I ever find myself disagreeing with a single thing Rand ever says…

I really hope he gets a fair look in 2016

thurman on January 22, 2013 at 5:18 PM

I can think of one – he said he is willing to compromise with the Dems on comprehensive immigration reform (aka amnesty). But, other that that (and that’s a big that), he is better than the Ryans and Rubios. I also like Ted Cruz and Susana Martinez.

Obama has annoited himself as the ‘Anti-Reagan’, determined to establish Unltra Progressivismas the new NORM as ‘aggressively’ as Reagan did with Conservatism….more in line, however, the was Hitler brought ‘Nazi’ party to Germany. I liken the GOP to the FRENCH – despite seeing the on-coming evil & still being able to do something about it they turned gutlessness and let evil have it’s way. The GOP is too busy NOR wanting to be disliked….gutless cowards.

The Tea Party has been branded ‘radicals’ by Progressives, the people who violate the Constitution & who wand to get rid of it & the Debt Ceiling…the GOP is trying to ‘rein ain’t the Tea Party because it is actually putting up a fight….

TIME TO DUMP THE GOP…END RHE PARTY OF GUTLESS. TALKERS…AND SUPPORT THE PARTY OF CONSERVATIVES WHO ARE STILL WILLING TO ADHERE TO WHAT OUR FOUNDING FATHERS INTENDED!

Did O decide that the politics of opposing a short-term hike on grounds that it’s not the long-term hike that Democrats demand are simply too dicey? Or is there something else I’m missing?

Obama knows that whenever the real fight happens with the GOP that he will win so this allows him to pretend to magnanimous and bipartisan etc. If the GOP wants to keep retreating to different hills why should Obama care. He knows that GOP will never die on any hill they pick.

Obama wants to build a consensus. By exterminating every single Republican possible, destroying them in every single way, he can then “work together” with the remaining members to ram every single bit of communist propaganda down our throats.

Retreat my ass….some people think that anyone who is not totally in favor of political suicide is retreating. Nonsense. I agree with Krauthammer on this…this tactic gives Republicans the only realistic opportunity they have to make the Democrats own any part of this debt. Thus far the House has come up with deficit reduction plans and budgets…the Senate has not done any of that. When the day comes that Rand Paul can get a budget out of the Senate then he can lecture the House. Truth is this plan might be the only way to get Reid to pass a budget. And if he does not then the Democrats will not be able to blame the Republicans..this time.

I am not a Rand Paul fan, but he is helping himself by being the only one with an R behind his name that is willing to stand up to the tyranny of Obama. That will take him a long way in his quest to be the nominee if there is still a Republican party in 2016. It will also make him target #1 of the Obama/Clinton machine.The remainder of Repubs appear to be a bunch of eunuchs in the face of a full on assault of our Republic.

You can pass it, future Congresses can not be held to it. This has been the rub for a long time now. It is all smoke and mirrors, nothing else. Our government is a failure, much like the upholstery on an old old car. In desperate need of not just work, but starting over from new cloth. I am beginning to think we will just have to put up with the old upholstery a few more years. It isn’t comfortable, doesn’t look good and frankly it smells. It isn’t even paid for yet.

Every day the Republicans wave the white flag. Every day we have more and more to say about them that isn’t positive. It’s so frustrating that they are as stupid as they are. We are losing this country and they have no reaction to it except to give it over to the Dems. So far Rand Paul is the only one in the Senate that is actually taking a stand. A couple in in the House and that’s all we’ve got.

and remember, this electorate just reelected Barack “What Debt?” Obama — then maybe you shouldn’t be.

Let’s consider this rationally instead of through an irrational fear impulse. The 48 percent of voters who didn’t vote for Obama are not saying “I’m gonna vote for Democrats if these Republicans don’t abandon conservative principles and push for even more debt!”. Right? I think we can agree on that. Now, let’s consider it from the Obama voter’s perspective: “If those Republicans would just spend us into debt quicker, I’d vote for them instead of the real McCoy debt raisers!”. Yeah, it doesn’t seem very likely to happen that way, does it?

The Senate Dems are interested in passing a budget now for the simple reason that they will have to have a way to “feed their beast”..Now that most taxes rates are permanent their only way is to pass a budget..:)

If you think the GOP’s well positioned to win a battle of public opinion if/when that happens, then you should be all for it. If you don’t — and remember, this electorate just reelected Barack “What Debt?” Obama — then maybe you shouldn’t be.

I don’t think that the GOP is well positioned to win any battle of public opinion. If the GOP took a position that 90% of the country agreed with and the Democrats took the opposite position, you can rest assured that the GOP would be surrendering on that position in very short order. They are just that stupid and incompetent.

But, that aside. I don’t give a flying f*ck about the politics of it, or the battle for public opinion. Sometimes people just need to do what is right, the consequences be damned. Right now, the GOP needs to save America from itself. But they won’t. Cowards. Whining, sniveling, spineless surrender monkeys.

And here we were told they caved on fiscal cliff so they would have more “negotiating power” if the Bush Tax Cuts were off the table… Just goes to show you.. The GOP has the biggest bunch of cowards leading it.

If he runs in 2016, Ryan’s primary opponents are going to destroy him as someone who talks like a fiscal conservative but has voted for a ton of bills that have helped to bloat the federal debt.

bw222 on January 22, 2013 at 5:31 PM

..while they did what, exactly?

The War Planner on January 22, 2013 at 5:46 PM

You get a governor running, you have the ready-made candidate to crush Ryan for the 2020 nomination (assuming Next-In-Line™ Santorum takes his birthright in 2016). On the other hand, the last few GOP nominees have been diametrically opposed to the “historic base” on the issue of the day.

But Ryan’s case, members say, is pretty simple. He wants Republicans to shape the fiscal debate this year, and do it unencumbered by the threat of government default. As he sees it, the more unity on where the party is picking its battles, the better.

The only reason the debate was encumbered by the threat of default is because the Republicans threatened it. They have had absolutely no idea how to fight for what they want and make the Dems look bad in opposing their plans.

…..I am going to try my hardest to not go all postal….
however, WE LOST ALREADY! The only thing left is to do what
is right for this country. Which not doing is what got us into
this mess in the first place.

Rand Paul is currently the only one making any sense. And I don’t
think either the rinos or lefties worry about him; if he becomes
too powerful the media will paint him with the broad brush
of his dad’s apparent crazy.

Good, work on making it fail in the senate. Bundle of laughs that would be.

lester on January 22, 2013 at 5:50 PM

Nice to see Reid actually put something up to vote on so that someone could actually try to oppose it and vote against it. It is such a rare thing to see that. I was starting to become convinced that the Senate was becoming like the Bermuda Triangle of legislation, a place where house bills go but are never seen from again.

I can think of one – he said he is willing to compromise with the Dems on comprehensive immigration reform (aka amnesty). But, other that that (and that’s a big that), he is better than the Ryans and Rubios. I also like Ted Cruz and Susana Martinez.

Does every single Rand Paul post have to be accompanied by the “he’s positioning for 2016″ deal. Yeesh. It’s making sound like everything he says is only with that in mind. Maybe the guy is actually conservative and just saying what he believes.

He’s almost all alone among prominent Republicans in opposing the plan for a short-term hike, but I’m sure that’s just how he likes it. He’s building a brand for 2016 and the core of it is being the most uncompromising fiscal conservative in the field

…it seems to be working on me!…seems to be the only Republican… that has to be cautious when zipping his fly!

Does every single Rand Paul post have to be accompanied by the “he’s positioning for 2016″ deal. Yeesh. It’s making sound like everything he says is only with that in mind. Maybe the guy is actually conservative and just saying what he believes.

Dongemaharu on January 22, 2013 at 7:06 PM

No, the “Look at me!!!” feel about Rand Paul is a bit obvious. It’s grating, to be honest.

I DO think we need to try a different tactic. We need to start educating our children that are just being born and to keep them away from every point of liberal indoctrination there is. If that means home schooling, it means home schooling. Etc, etc.

You can FORGET about this emerging generation. The under-30 crowd is proving to be a total blight; useless and worthless, and forever arrested to government and free bennies. Gotta have their free birth control and subsided 10-plus year college “education” . They will be all automatic Dem votes until the day they die; Hilter or Satan could run for POTUS and would capture that crowd simply because they would be running as Democrats.

The GOP are mopre worried about BEING LIKED / NOT BEING HATED, risking the end of the GOP, that they are willing to BETRAY TRUE CONSERVATISM, BETRAY the AMERICAN PEOPLE, and SURRENDER WITHOUT PUTTING UP A FIGHT (even though they know what Obama is doing is destroying the nation)! What they are demonstrating, however, is the EXACT REASON, why the GOP NEEDS to be destroyed, a new party taking it’s places!

Our Founding Fathers were common people who FOUGHT TYRANNY, OPPRESSION, & MASSIVE GOVT W/OUT REPRESENTATION. Had Boehner, McConnell, & these other GOP ‘Leaders’ been in charge rather than Washington, Jefferson, & Franklin we would STILL be under Brittish rule! Our nation’s history is filled with examples of great leaders who fought and sacrificed to protect & defend this nation & it’s Constitution. THIS GOP, however, does not want to fight at all for fear of losinng their cushy political positions, their massive un-deserved salary, the best medical care WE can afford, trips, expense accounts, perks, & BEING ABOVE THE LAW!

I am mad as H#LL…and I am wondering what it is going to take to get the rest of Americans who love this country to get mad as well?! Talk is cheap…and is getting us no where but a front row to watch this POS in the White House destroy our nation…and to watch the GOP, a bunch of GUTLESS, opathetic excuses for men (& women) & ‘Leaders’ who are content to pick up the proverbial fiddle & play while ‘Rome’ Burns! It is time for a peaceful revolution, to repel the Communist/Socialist, Anti-Colonialist Horde that is setting about doing what they promised in 2008 – to ‘fundamentaly change the U.S.!